A strange question

[BillyS]

All my life, mosquitoes never bothered me. I'd get bitten on occasion and the bites would itch a little and then go away, no big deal.

This past fall, something changed. Now when I get mosquito bites, they itch like crazy and last for days! Anti-itch creams don't work, either. It's pretty miserable.

So, right before this change in how bug bites behave, I got stung by a wasp. Like, it was a direct hit and it felt like I'd been shot. Venom oozed out of the hole and this thing hurt/itched for a long time. I'd read somewhere that bee stings have been known to help with certain diseases. Not getting too technical, but it it possible that that dose of wasp venom changed the way my body reacts to bug bites?

I know, that's why I titled this post "A strange question..."

[Cedar]

Your body is getting sensitive, Keep Benedril on hand.

I never swelled up until I walked over a ground nest of yellow jackets which funneled up my bell bottom pants when I was in a field. I got stung 14x on my lower half, and a bunch if times on my upper half. I now swell up 3x or so that my normal arm looks like if I get stung there, it gets hard and you can actually knock on it like it was wood. It itches like I went to Hades... and it stays swollen for a long time.

Honey bees make me swell too (so of course I work bee hives) but not as bad as yellow jackets, but White Faced wasps (1 sting) and this kind
(2 stings)  don't make me swell up at all.

Cedar

[Frugal Upstate]

To deal with the itch you can use a very common weed called plantain (not the banana looking fruit).  Look up ""spit poultice plantain".  Of course you can just bruise it well & hold it on w a bandaid too.

[gopack84]

Similar thing here. Hit a nest of ground dwelling wasps (yellowjackets we call them in GA) while push mowing the yard. Got stung 4 times on my left leg. Prior to that I'd had an occasionally wasp or honeybee sting with no problem but this one caused my leg to swell up for over a week. 9 years later, I still have two scars on my calf. Ever since then if I get stung by anything I have a pretty dramatic local swelling reaction. Benadryl does help with the itching and swelling for me but doesn't really make it go away.

[fritz_monroe]

To deal with the itch you can use a very common weed called plantain (not the banana looking fruit).  Look up ""spit poultice plantain".  Of course you can just bruise it well & hold it on w a bandaid too.

That's what I do when I get hit by my bees.  Step away from the hive and start looking for plantain.  Mash it up and tape it in place with a small piece of duct tape that lives in my bee box.

[BillyS]

Similar thing here. Hit a nest of ground dwelling wasps (yellowjackets we call them in GA) while push mowing the yard. Got stung 4 times on my left leg. Prior to that I'd had an occasionally wasp or honeybee sting with no problem but this one caused my leg to swell up for over a week. 9 years later, I still have two scars on my calf. Ever since then if I get stung by anything I have a pretty dramatic local swelling reaction. Benadryl does help with the itching and swelling for me but doesn't really make it go away.

Well at least I'm not crazy. I mentioned it to my wife and she looked at me funny. I asked a couple of friends and they did the same thing. Thanks!